Death row inmate loses appeal

Taichin Preyor
Age: 41
Execution: Still on death row
Summary: Preyor was convicted of stabbing and killing his 20-year-old girlfriend in her apartment.

A San Antonio man sentenced to death for fatally stabbing a woman who sold him drugs lost a federal appeal this week.

No execution date has been set for Taichin Preyor, 42, who was convicted in the 2004 slaying of Jami Tackett in her Southeast Side apartment.

Police arrested him in the parking lot of the complex after he had come back to look for his car keys, according to court documents.

Tackett was found when her neighbors heard her screaming; they saw a man in all black run from the apartment. Her throat had been cut and she was stabbed multiple times.

A man with Tackett was also stabbed but managed to escape and call for help.

Preyor claimed in his appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court that he had ineffective trial attorneys who failed to call him to testify, didn't properly present his self-defense claim and had a too-friendly relationship with the victim's stepfather, according to the ruling.

In his statement to police that was quoted in the federal court's ruling, Preyor said he went to the apartment to buy drugs from Tackett but as he was leaving he was attacked by her and her friend. He said he fought back to get away and didn't even know he had seriously injured or killed anyone.

Preyor has filed numerous appeals and all have been denied. He was mentioned on a Yahoo.com blog for going on a hunger strike in 2009 to protest the conditions on death row.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice couldn't confirm Friday that he did actually engage in a hunger strike. But the department said he has been disciplined six times since 2007 with all but one for refusing orders.